Tag: Performance
September 19, 2009 by
Jason
Windows 7’s evolution compared to Windows Vista is undeniable, and the lucky few that so far have had access to the RTM bits of the latest Windows client can confirm this. But fact of the matter is that even in Beta Build 7000 development stage, Windows 7 bested Vista, and the boot time performance drag race is an illustrative example in this regard. However, Windows 7 startup speeds manage to leave its precursor in the dust. Some of you might remember reading about the 11-second boot Windows 7 delivered in a demonstration courtesy of Ruston Panabaker, Microsoft’s principal program manager of strategic silicon partnering. (via PCMag and Beyond Binary)
Yes, Windows 7 booting in just 11 seconds. My first question was, what kind of computer was Panabaker running, for obvious, and geeky, reasons. So I went ahead, and shot an email to Microsoft asking for details about the hardware configuration of the 11-second Windows 7 boot machine. Here is the answer a company spokesperson provided me: “This was ran on a Quad-core 1.7 GHz Nehalem [Core i7] processor on a Calpella chipset, 2GB of memory, 80 GB Intel X25-M SSD (1st gen). In the set up, the log-in screen was turned off in the user control panel.”
However, the Microsoft representative noted that the 11-second boot represented just the startup time for Windows 7. “Note: BIOS post is in addition to this,” the company spokesperson added. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
September 17, 2009 by
Jason Internet Explorer 8 includes a security feature that shuts down misbehaving applications before they can harm your system.
This capability, known as Data Execution Prevention (DEP), runs by default when IE 8 is installed on XP SP3 and Vista SP1 or later, but it may not always be clear to you why DEP has put the brakes on one of your PC’s applications.
DEP is the best reason I know for updating to Internet Explorer 8 and Vista SP1. For many years, Microsoft has included DEP which is also called No-Execute (NX) only in parts of Windows. For example, DEP is available in IE 7 but is off by default to avoid conflicts with old, incompatible programs.
DEP is now a key part of Vista and Internet Explorer 8. When I try to install older software on newer machines, I must configure Data Execution Prevention to allow the software installer to run with DEP disabled.
To open the Data Execution Prevention dialog in XP, open Control Panel, choose System, and then select the Advanced tab. Click the Settings button in the Performance section and select the Data Execution Prevention tab. In Vista, choose Performance Information and Tools, click Advanced Tools in the left pane, select Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows, and click the Data Execution Prevention tab. Read More»
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September 04, 2009 by
Jason Windows 7 is “outrunning” Windows Vista in more ways than one. Microsoft has labored to ensure that the latest Windows client outpaces its precursor in a variety of scenarios, from startup time, to common usage tasks, and to shutdown, to name just a few. Another aspect in which Windows 7 has Vista beat is upgrade performance. According to Chris Hernandez, from the Windows Deployment team, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to Windows 7 upgrades are at least 5% faster than Vista SP1 to Vista SP1 upgrades.
In fact, when it set out to do the operating system upgrade measuring contest, Microsoft was looking for at least a 5% threshold for upgrade scenarios involving Vista SP1 to Windows 7 was in comparison to jumps from Vista SP1 to Vista SP1. The Redmond-based company explained that the Windows Upgrade team monitored the Windows 7 upgrade performance during the development process, and that it compared it against its Vista baseline.
“The reason we choose to use a Vista SP1 -> Vista SP1 upgrade instead of Windows XP -> Vista as our baseline was for the following: Windows XP is a vastly different operating system compared to Vista and an upgrade from Windows XP -> Vista would not be a good comparison with Vista -> Windows 7. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
September 02, 2009 by
Jason Customers testing the virtualization extensions of Windows 7, namely Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode have been experiencing performance problems in scenarios in which sharing folders are enabled. Ben Armstrong, Program manager on the core virtualization team at Microsoft, revealed that the issues reported are connected with the latest development milestone of Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode, namely the Release Candidate Builds. Fortunately enough, a hotfix is already available from the software giant.
“A number of users have seen performance issues using shared folders / having shared folders enabled with Windows XP Mode on the RC release of Windows Virtual PC. This can be addressed by installing this hotfix inside the virtual machine. Please note – this hotfix is for Windows XP and is installed inside the virtual machine, not in the host operating system,” Armstrong noted.
Knowledge Base Article 972435 doesn’t mention Windows XP Mode, a Windows 7 feature, which is available as a standalone download. However, the resources designed to help customers resolve “slow performance when you try to open a redirected drive on a remote computer through a Terminal Services session” applies to Windows XP Professional. And Windows XP Mode is indeed based on a free and pre-activated copy of Windows XP that is available for Windows 7. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | 2 Comments »
Google is hard at work developing a 64-bit version of its open-source browser for Windows. The Mountain View-search giant indicated that work was in progress but delivered no specific availability deadline so far. According to Chromium developers Mads Sig Ager, a 64-bit (x64) flavor of Google Chrome will be offered to Windows users “soon.” There’s no telling just what the period of time “soon” can be translated into, but testers can already run 64-bit Chrome.
At the end of the past week, Google offered the first downloads of its true 64-bit version of Chrome, tailored to the Linux open-source platform. The Mountain View is focusing on adapting x64 Chrome to Linux and Mac OS X first, and only afterwards to Windows. According to Google, the heavy lifting is focused on porting the underlining V8 JavaScript engine to 64-bit platforms.
“V8 does not yet compile in 64-bit mode on Windows. We have focused on making the 64-bit version of V8 work on Linux and Mac at first. We are currently working on making the 64-bit version compile on Windows as well. We should hopefully have that done soon,” Ager stated when x64 Chrome for Linux was launched. Read More»
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1. ACCURATE SCORE
Make sure you have an accurate WEI score. Follow our advice to optimise your PC, then close down all open applications and run the test again.
2. PERFORMANCE TWEAKS
If your CPU score is over 5 then overclocking, while risky, might help you reach the maximum. Check your BIOS setup program and documentation for advice.
3. FIND A REPLACEMENT
Upgrading your CPU may deliver the best results. Check your motherboard manufacturer’s web site to see which CPUs it supports, then comparison-shop at uk.shopping.com.
4. CHECK SPEEDS
Can this processor really deliver a 5.9? Visit shareyourscore.com/ ComponentScores.aspx to see how it performs on other people’s systems.
Read More»
Posted in Windows 7, Windows Vista | No Comments »
There’s an easy way to stretch Windows 7’s 30-day free-trial period to 120 days so you can determine whether Microsoft’s new operating system meets your needs.
Even better if you know the secret you can try out any version of Win7, from Ultimate to the lowly Basic, using a single install disc.
It’s fair to say that by now hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of copies of Windows 7 sit on DVDs and hard drives all over the world. You might have downloaded a copy of Win7 from the official sites: Microsoft Developer Network, TechNet, or Software Advantage. Perhaps you hooked up your machine to a torrent or a newsgroup site to download the new OS. Or maybe you snagged a copy from your tech-savvy sister-in-law.
Whichever channel you use, if you don’t already have a copy of Windows 7, you can easily put your paws on the installation bits and burn your own install DVD. Just be sure what you downloaded is the real, shipping version of Windows 7. One way to confirm this is to use a set of checksum verification instructions found on Pctipsbox. Read More»
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Following the release of the gold build of Windows 7 via MSDN and TechNet, Microsoft has now made available for download Windows 7 Code Pack 1.0. Version 1.0 of the Windows API Code Pack for Microsoft .NET Framework is designed to integrate with the RTM release of Windows Vista’s successor. Subscribers of both MSDN and TechNet can already download and install the final version of Windows 7 since the end of the past week. Now developers looking to start building applications for Windows 7 RTM can also grab Windows API Code Pack for Microsoft .NET Framework, but without the restrictions set in place by the MSDN or TechNet subscriptions.
“The Windows API Code Pack for Microsoft .NET Framework provides support for various features of Windows 7 and previous releases of that operating system. The Code Pack has reached version 1.0 and has been published on Code Gallery,” revealed Charlie Calvert, Microsoft C# community program manager.
According to Microsoft, Windows 7 RTM Code Pack 1.0 “provides a source code library that can be used to access some new Windows 7 features (and some existing features of older versions of Windows operating system) from managed code. These Windows features are not available to developers today in the .NET Framework.” Read More»
Posted in Software, Windows 7 | 1 Comment »
Whether you are talking about your car, phone, dog, your favorite football player or even about trying to make the best out of your work day, speed is one of the things – if not the most important – that always come up. The same theory applies to your Mac and the way you want it to respond to your commands.
There are countless pieces of advice you can find on the Internet telling you what you can do to make sure that your Mac is as responsive as you want it to be. However, although some of those tips will show you the right path to achieve that, others have nothing to do with improving the speed of your Mac’s OS X system.
What you can do to make sure you are not doing daily maintenance work on your Mac with no effect just because someone told you that, let’s say, is to repair the disk permissions. Actually, when repairing the disk permissions, OS X will just examine files and folders on your hard drive to check if their current permissions are set the way they were supposed to be.
If the permissions are different from the expected ones, they will be changed to their correct settings. That is only one of the many suggested practices users will wrongfully perform on a daily basis when noticing that their Mac is getting a little sluggish and unresponsive. Read More»
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One way to speed up your computer is to increase your hard drive’s performance. If you’ve been using your computer for a while, you’ve probably noticed that your computer is getting slower. One reason for this is that your hard drive has gotten more fragmented over time.
This means that as you install and delete things from your hard drive, holes are being created and filled randomly with other files so, say, your video of Madonna might be broken up into thirty pieces all over your hard drive, slowing down its playback.
Well, Windows XP has a Disk Defragmenter that will solve all your woes. It takes the pieces of each file and puts them together again so they can be read in one clean pass.
Be sure to run this program at night since it takes several hours and make sure to close any open programs. Go to Start->All Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Defragmentor to access it.
Click the Analyze button. It’ll tell you if you need to defragment your hard drive.
A lot of red is a bad sign. If it says “You should defragment this volume”, click the Defragment button. Come back in a few hours, and your hard drive should be purring.
Posted in Computer | No Comments »
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